It takes a village to raise a child.
It takes children to raise a village.

Two dozen children from the Weaver Child Development Center at Malone University gathered to their gymnasium with wonder and curiosity about what was to come in the next two hours. When the children entered the gym their eyes immediately focused on the table in the center that displayed a miniature Cocoro Village. As they gathered around the table, mesmerized by the many structures designed by Norio Saneshige, the full scale Cocoro Playhouses were being prepared to soon become an exact replica of the miniature village.

The children eagerly helped the adults prepare, opening boxes of playhouses, punching out the pre-cut windows, and sorting alike pieces into piles. With every person’s efforts combined, the playhouses were ready to be built in little time. Excitement and anticipation filled the gymnasium and after only a few moments of being placed into small groups, the children dashed off to build their assigned section of the Cocoro Village.

Looking around the room, one could see the happiness and joy of each child helping one another to build their structure. The older ones, who were in the third grade, were helping and including the kindergartners in the process also. Parents of the children were even getting involved in the building of the village. When a problem arose, the children worked together to construct a solution to the problem. From an outside view, the entire room was bursting with bustling and busy activity as the village was constructed. In record time, the playhouse village was completed and the children were already running around and playing in it. After a short amount of time of playing, Norio called for the children’s attention. He explained that now that the village had been completed, there was a surprise ending to the event.

Each child anxiously waited for the surprise to be revealed. Norio turned off the lights and brought out dozens of yellow lanterns. One lantern was given to each excited child. They all went into a part of the village and waited to turn their lantern on. As a count down took place, the children could hardly wait to all turn their lanterns on together. When the count down was finally finished, the lanterns were clicked on and brilliantly illuminated the once darkened village.

Before the main Cocoro village building event, Norio visited third and fourth grade students at Weaver Childhood Development Center @ Malone University. During his visit, he donated several Cocoro miniature sets to the classes. The children were then able to use the mini sets to play and learn how the building system works before using the larger sets for the village.
Then in further preparation for the big build, Norio and the students took measurements of the event area and calculated the space needed for the village buildings. The children enjoyed the whole preparation process and looked forward to leading in the building of the large scale village in the days to come.

We are very excited to have our first ever Cocoro village building event! Here is a preview of the Cocoro village miniature model that we are going to build together at the event. It took 13 playhouse sets to put this village together. Can't wait to show the kids!